"The time has come the walrus said to talk of many things, of shoes and ships and sealing wax, and cabbages and kings."
—Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking Glass
Hi,
I have been swamped with work ever since I got back from my vacation so haven’t really had the time to blog except to post excerpts.
Am still busy but thought I’d try and blog a bit today and as the quote above says, it will be of many things…
Let’s see what has happened lately…
First Things First. For all Ex-Northpointers: Fr. Van will probably visit Dubai some time in June and would love to meet ex students and so if any of you are interested we can arrange something. You can mail me at vishalsubba@hotmail.com or Samir Sharma at samir.sharma@iirme.com and we can save your contact details and keep you updated on the developments.
Regular readers of my blog will remember the seller of the bullet-proof onyx who was arrested by the Dubai police. He is still in police custody and the courts are trying to locate an “agency” which can verify the claims as they have no way to know if the stone is bullet-proof. I cant understand why they don’t get him to try it on himself but will keep you updated on the developments on this one. Looks like the beginning of a very interesting saga here.
While I was in India on a holiday I also visited Jalpaiguri which is a sleepy village/town and there outside a park was the ubiquitous ‘puchka’ seller. Since we don’t get the unhygienic-but-tasty stuff here in UAE I decided to try it and what do you know. It was really really great. No 7star hotel can come even close to the raw explode-in-your-mouth taste that I experienced. Maybe too much sanitation is not really such a good thing. After that fiery snack I saw an ice-cream seller nearby and went to buy one. He only sold cones and they were priced at 5 rupees each. Now even by Indian standards that was dirt cheap. Only once he started to make the cone that I realized why. His “ice-cream” came from a ‘dekchi’ and was served with a steel cooking ladle. Flavored icicles was more like it but god-damn me if the bloody thing didn’t taste better than anyone of the 31 flavours that Baskin Robbins sells. Why? Incredible India maybe.
IRONY: His "ice-cream" tastes like Heaven and he looks like he came from Hell
Another front page report in the Gulf News here said that a couple found 4 bugs in the food and after complaining to management the dish was exchanged without apologies. However when t
he bill came (I don’t understand why they were even willing to pay) they found a 25% discount under the heading “Insect In Food”. Very considerate of them but really makes you wonder if it is a regular occurrence that they even have a discounted heading for it. And if 4bugs = 25% do you need to find 16 before you get your meal free? Customer Service Dubai Style.
I was chatting randomly with my colleague recently and the topic went to manners & etiquette. Are social niceties really necessary now a days? Especially among friends. Do friends need to say Please and Thank You? Thankfully my colleague agrees with me that no amount of success, money or fame should ever replace basic manners. It does not cost you anything, it isn’t tiring to do and it really shows how you grew up. It is a reflection on your upbringing actually. Do write in and tell me what you guys feel about this.
I must also thank Jashoda in Sikkim for regularly getting my blogs published in the Sikkim Express. She’s an absolute sweetheart with whom, incidentally, I don’t keep in touch as often as I should. Is that also as bad as not saying Please & Thank You? Now there’s a question for you.
And last but definitely not the least a hindi movie called Tashan is releasing soon. Starring Saif, Kereena, Akshay Kumar & Anil Kapoor it is expected to be a brainless blockbuster in the Dhoom mould. Anyway it has a song called "Dil Dance Maare". The fun thing is the lyrics which even by Bollywood standards is absolutely innane. I have attached the lyrics below for you but the crazy thing is that the bloody song is catchy as hell and terribly entertaining. Maybe the whole thing was so bad it went right over the edge and came back around to be somehow good again. I know i am not making sense so just try reading the lyrics.
Have fun and yes, Thank You for reading. :-)
Ciao
Vish
(Chorus)
White white face dekhe dil woh beating fast sasura
chance mare re
Oh very… oh very…Oh very happy in my heart
Dil dance maare re
Oiye cant stop of my feet,
jo lamwa kare hai zalim beat
Rose ki jaisan pink pink,
humre gaal gulabi
Sky ke jaisan blue blue
hi tohara nain sharabi
(Insert chorus here)
Bola chera jaise moon,
Kali zulfe jaisa cloud
Ab na aur chupya jaye,
dhadkan ho gayi very loud
Tohare dil ka theatre ma aaa
Dil deewana booking advance maare re
Vishalji Namaste!
ReplyDeleteWith referrence to your blog on "Do friends need to say Please and Thank You? Thankfully my colleague agrees with me."
I disagree.
We are perhaps a little too influenced by the English culture. Thank you and please is a part of that culture. Let us not forget that there are other cultures in Europe and else where that do not use these phrases to the same extent as the English (and still manage to be polite). And how is that possible you ask? Well you mark politeness by the tone of your voice rather than the words chosen. Not convinced? How about Hindi and Nepali. How many times have you said please (kripaya) in Hindi or Nepali? Now to the European example. Before leaving U.K. for Sweden, I presumed all Europeans used the equivalent of please and thank you in their own language, and to the same extent. I was surprised to find that the Swedes, the Norweigeans and the Danes had these words in their language but rarely used them. Just like Nepali the tone of the voice and gesture replaced these two phrases quite often. So let us not be fooled by the English culture and their ways. They do not represent the world or its culture. You and I come from a far older and a better developed civilisation (language, education, religion etc). I see no reason to adopt their ways in my home with my Nepali or Indian friends. I'll save the excessive use of please and thank you for the Brits.
Namaste,
Rajiv.